Two-time world champion, Ohio's Shawn Porter, makes the first defence of his WBC title, which he won 6 months earlier, against former two-weight world champion, Danny Garcia. Porter takes on Cuban, Yordenis Ugas, Ugas, a very good amateur, also coming off a couple of very dominant wins, is an underdog, but expected to give Porter problems.

Porter is very mobile in the early rounds, he throws in combinations, able to land a fair few clean punches, but Ugas is the aggressor, lands, although less, the stand out punches, does some great work to the body.

Ugas struggles to get in range to land his shots, often in the mid rounds, as Porter uses his movement very well, and Porter gets the best of it when they exchange, but Ugas is able to time Porter, beat him to the punch at long range.

The fight is still very closely fought in the late rounds, Porter continues to move well, lands his jab with snap behind it, throws at angles, out works Ugas, but Ugas is still aggressive, but smart, still lands the harder power shots overall.

It seems to most people as if Ugas has edged the fight, but there are mixed opinions, some think Porter has done enough to keep his belt.

One judge scores Ugas a winner by a landslide, another scores Porter a fairly wide winner, and a decisive judge scores Porter a narrow winner. Shawn Porter beats Yordenis Ugas by Split Decision.

The decision is controversial, Fox score Ugas a close winner, Ray Mancini and Floyd Mayweather Sr heavily criticise the decision, insist Porter didn't win, Leo Santa Cruz says Ugas edged the fight, but Keith Thurman, Mikey Garcia, Lennox Lewis disagree on it being a bad decision, believe it was a close fight that could have gone either way.

Comments

This is not an easy fight for Porter, but it is not too tough a fight coming off the Garcia win, and 6 months is probably the perfect amount of time between fights for Porter, should be no ring rust, but it's enough time to rest, train, prepare.

Ugas was a very good amateur, and as a professional, he is not bad, very technically skilled, knows how to do damage, good at cutting off the ring, but I think Porter has too much foot speed, too much output, and is too strong for 12 rounds for Ugas to have the beating of him.

I think Ugas can catch Porter on the counter, won't be frustrated early by Porter's foot speed and ability to change direction, but I think when Porter feints, moves in and out of range, he'll use his jab well, and Ugas will take time to settle down.

I think in the mid rounds, Ugas will time Porter, land the counter right, over the jab, but he won't be able to hurt Porter, Porter will keep throwing, out work Ugas, his output will be too much for Ugas when they exchange, and Ugas won't be able to keep him off.

I think Ugas will tire down the stretch, and after 8 rounds, he will blow a gasket. I think Porter will dominate the late rounds, attack head and body, hurt Ugas, and maybe even get a late knockdown, I don't think he'll finish him, but he will give Ugas a beating in the last couple of rounds.

It's a decent fight and I am glad that they are giving Ugas a chance to fight for a world title. With that being said I give Ugas a 20% maybe 25% against Porter, the first 5-6 rounds might be competitive but Porter is rough with a great chin and a boxing ability that is very underrated. I believe Ugas don't have the power to keep Porter at bay, neither the energy to match with Porter's relentless style . I see Porter walking down Ugas and maybe stopping him in the later rounds, if not it should be a competitive but rather not too complicated UD

Porter loses 2 full pounds, gets down to 146.8, that's a relief for Porter and his team, if he loses the belt now, at least he'll lose a better fighter on the night, but I think he will defend, beat Ugas, can write Ugas off, but I think Porter wins.

I don't think he was drained because he was confident he could lose 2lbs in one hour, he also came in 0.2 under the limit, more likely, complacency, it seems very possible that Porter has overlooked Ugas.

If his cut was going well, why was he 2lbs over in the first place? I think that in itself is evidence he is drained. I agree that it likely comes down to complacency though, Porter didn't look very trim. Did you see Ugas? I don't know how he ever made 140lbs. He looked a lot bigger than Porter and he's really trim.

Complacency like you just said, he was probably on weight for a while, didn't quite have the seriousness and motivation to get rid of the last 2 pounds, that he had against Garcia. No I didn't, but I can believe it, he's big for the weight, he's strong, very good at holding centre ring, but also cutting off the ring, I expect him to hit Porter on the counter with the cleaner, more eye catching punches, make it a very interesting fight for 6-8 rounds.

I know, it just seems unlikely he would go from making 147, no problem, not seemimg frained in fights, to missing weight by almlst 2 lbs when he hasn't taken his foot off the gas, I think he did take his foot of the gas, I think it is highly like he has overlooked Ugas, somewhat, the questions are, how badly has he underestimated him and will it cost him the fight?

Well, my dad is a fan and Twitter friend of Ugas, but I have always been a big fan of Porter, may the best man win.

Very interesting fight, good game plans from both. I think both fighters tried to beat each other at their own game, Porter tried to be technical, Ugas tried to use his natural size and strength to overpower Porter.

I think Ugas boxed very well, did time Porter and counter him as I expected him to, but he was frustrated by Porter's foot speed, the jab, and I think he struggled to match Porter for pace, definitely struggled to match him for punches thrown. Ugas's early tactic of attacking the body, not getting careless, not holding his ground and swinging away at the body aimlessly, but landing those counter liver shots, great tactic, and early, against a weight drained fighter, not something a weight drained fighter can hold up against. I think Porter, if slightly drained, was not nearly as drained as poeple thought he was, and he didn't slow down like Ugas and his team were hoping, which is also a testament to Porter's stamina.

I think Porter wasn't at his best in this fight, I think he did underestimate Ugas, but I also think he is probably starting to decline now, Porter, and Ugas, as he proved, is underrated.

I strongly disagree with anyone who calls this a corrupt decision, it was not, Porter landed more punches, won the battle of the jabs, landed slightly more power shots as well, but Ugas landed the cleaner, harder punches, classic case of a close fight, but I think Porter egded rounds 7 and 11 by out working Ugas, landing more, landing a couple of stand out shots himself.

I 100% agree with DeLuca, don't like 116-112, but 111-117, I think that's a bad one, but it was good to see a split decision.

Ugas can win a world title, he is not young, but he came very close, the decision is somewhat controversial, and Porter is a good champion, so realistically, Ugas has a chance of being a champion.

I think Ugas against the winner of Garcia vs Granados would be a great match up.

HOrrible decision. I hadn't scored the fight the first time I watched it, and I had thought Ugas had edged it. After watching it again and scoring it, WOW, AWFUL judging.
It's beyond me how Porter's ineffective agression gets him rounds. Ported tried to stay on the outside, and force Ugas to overcommit and sacrifice his reach. However, He just looked silly as Ugas kept control of the distance and center of the ring, while countering Porter easily.
Ugas clearly won this fight. This was a blatant robbery